Rising Hope: A Hetalia Dark Knight Crossover
by Procyonpaw
Summary: A tale about an American Man, a man in Florence, and two former superheroes sitting across from him at a local cafe. A Hetalia x Dark Knight crossover, Inspired by the ending to The Dark Knight Rises


**Author's Note:**As was the case with The Avengers, I'm proud to have seen **The Dark Knight Rises **and loved it to death (if you haven't seen it, it's worth the time :D). This story will follow the events of The Dark Knight Rises ending, from a Hetalia point of view.

Enjoy!

P.S. Obviously, this contains SPOILERS and will NOT make sense if you haven't seen the ending.

XX

**Dark Knight Rises: Nascence**

**A Hetalia / Dark Knight Rises story**

**Starring…**

**Alfred – America**

**Feliciano – Italy**

**Alexis – New York**

XX

Alfred F. Jones held Alexis tight.

Not more than an hour ago, a child had come to the doorstep of his house in Gotham and urgently told him to get to the Northern Bridge as fast as he could. The child quickly rambled something about a Nuclear Bomb that would incinerate the entire city of Gotham in one hour, but before Alfred could ask the child to slow down, the kid had run off to spread the word to others.

So, as quickly as he could, Alfred took his daughter Alexis and a few sundries and drove as fast as he could to the Northern Bridge of Gotham. It was a perilous drive; every street had iced over, and every so often, Alfred could see a camouflaged tank escorting an enormous black truck. Upon arriving at the bridge, Alfred could see the other bridges had all been destroyed to prevent escape.

However, even though it was intact, the Northern Bridge was blocked. In front of him, there were several Police barricades blocking an exit from Gotham, with guns drawn. Alfred stepped out of the car. In front of his car were some buses full of children, led by a single Police Officer by the name of John Blake, who was pleading to the Police barricade to let them through.

_Boom_

Suddenly, an explosion threw Officer Blake backwards, and when the dust cleared, Alfred could see that the last bridge had been destroyed, along with all hope of escaping Gotham and the explosion.

"YOU-YOU!" Alfred heard Officer Blake curse at the Police Barricade across from the destroyed bridge. "You've killed us all!"

Time was up. It had been an hour since Bane said the bomb would explode. Alfred's shaking hand made its way to his face, as he tried to grasp the fact that he was going to die soon. He turned to Alexis, and by the look she saw on his face, she knew as well.

All the recent tragedies flashed through Alfred's mind as he prepared himself for the end; First, nearly losing the city to a drug dealer named Falcone, losing the city's icon of hope, Harvey Dent, only to find that Dent had been a criminal as well. And now, the world's greatest city was going to be turned into ash. Alfred got back in his car and hugged Alexis for what he thought would be the last time.

Alfred and Alexis held each other tightly as they waited for the end to come.

XxX

Alfred opened his eyes to the sound of cheering children's voices. Looking outside, he saw the children on the bus excitedly pointing up into the skies, with Officer Blake looking on with wide eyes.

"I told you he'd come back!"

It was one of the Batman's vehicles, a flying ship that was… carrying the something in tow over the bay! Alfred knew of the vigilante, because of Bane's speech on how it was the Dark Knight that had fought to protect Gotham, rather than Politicians or Harvey Dent. It had been eight years since his last appearance, but now he was back to fight for Gotham. Alfred couldn't believe his eyes, as the black vehicle flew out across the seas.

Then he realized. It was carrying the bomb. Gotham's Dark Knight was flying the bomb away from the city, and he had no intention of surviving his final act for his city.

The bomb exploded in a flash of light over the bay as Alfred, Officer Blake, and the whole city watched on.

Alexis finally stepped out of the car, turning to Alfred.

"The city will never know," Alexis began. "the name of the man who saved them all. Shouldn't we know the name of the one whose lives we all owe?"

Alfred turned to Alexis, and then looked back at the dissipating explosion over the bay of Gotham. Smiling into the sunset, he spoke.

"They know. They'll know who saved them," he spoke in a reverent tone.

"It was the Batman."

XxX

Months later, in Gotham's city hall, Alfred Jones ordered a statue and a plaque in memory of The Dark Knight to be erected in the grand lobby.

On the presentation day, Alfred pulled off the cloth covering the statue as Alexis cut a silver ribbon in front of the statue. Dozens of news reporters and camera crews took pictures of the newly unveiled memorial to Gotham's Dark Knight.

Amidst all the clamor and noise of the news reporters, one reporter managed to squeeze her way to the front of the crowd; a pretty blonde lady named Catherine.

"Mr. Jones!" she gasped as she was almost pushed back by Arthur Kirkland, who was taking pictures of the statue. "With Batman gone, who will protect Gotham now? Who will be this city's hero?"

As the reporter waited anxiously for Alfred's answer, he turned to look at the statue. "I am not sure," he finally said, as the reporter began to scribble on her notepad.

"However, I believe that anyone can be a hero," Alfred continued, as the reporter furiously scribbled down his every word. "I can be a hero. You can be a hero. Even… just doing something as small as… oh, I don't know, putting a coat on a young boy's shoulders. It doesn't matter if they're as fearsome as a bat or as tiny as a robin. Even the smallest of gestures can make you a hero."

XxX

**Florence, 20XX**

Feliciano was enjoying a cup of coffee in a small-town café in Florence, Northern Italy. It was a crowded little outdoors café, so Feliciano was very much used to sitting next to, and conversing with complete strangers. It didn't bother him much, though, because he did enjoy people's company and occasionally hearing their life's stories.

"Are these seats taken?"

Feliciano looked up. A man and a woman were standing there, gesturing to two empty seats across from him. Feliciano could tell from the man's voice that he was not Italian. Maybe American.

"No, the're free!" Feliciano grinned, as the couple sat down and began chatting amongst themselves.

Little did Feliciano know that the man and woman were responsible for the salvation of a faraway city. And that not too far away from where he was sitting, there sat an older man, by the name of Alfred Pennyworth, simply smiling at the sight of the young couple together, and realizing that through Batman's apparent death, his master, Bruce Wayne, had finally begun to live.


End file.
